a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to toilets, and, more particularly, a urinal attachment that is mountable to the bowl of the conventional toilet as an aid in toilet training of young male children.
b. Related Art
Toilet training of young male children presents certain challenges. For the most part, young boys quite willingly embrace the concept of urinating while standing, however their ability to maintain a proper aim is slower to develop. The results, well known to parents, is that the full stream may not enter the bowl, and a portion thereof may therefore come to reside on the rim or sides of the bowl, or on the adjoining floor, walls, or on a variety of other surfaces. Many of these areas are difficult to access, rendering an unwelcome cleaning chore even less pleasant, but if not tended to the situation quickly becomes unsanitary and malodorous.
The difficulties described in the preceding paragraph are of an age-old nature, consequently numerous efforts have been made at improving the situation. In the modern era many of these efforts have taken the form of splash guards and/or miniature urinals that are mountable to conventional household toilets (e.g., Western-type flush toilets), either temporarily or more-or-less permanently. In general such devices comprise surfaces that are intended to capture and direct the flow into the bowl and prevent “splatters” from escaping into the adjoining area, but for the most part they have suffered from various deficiencies that have rendered them less than entirely satisfactory.
For example, some of these devices have consisted of channels or shields formed of plastic or other rigid material that temporarily “clip” or otherwise attach to the rim of the bowl for use. A distinct disadvantage is that these types of devices generally obstruct/block the seat from being lowered, or otherwise interfere with the toilet being used in the seated position, such that the devices must generally be removed from the toilet except at times when their services are specifically required; this need to repeatedly mount and remove the attachment, over and over again, can quickly become tedious for the parent, and moreover the time required to do so can be present a significant problem when the needs of nature are urgent.
Some devices have to one extent or another avoided the problem of blocking the toilet seat, but at the expense of other drawbacks. For example, devices have been proposed that include wing-like walls that depend from the seat so as to form a shield when the latter is raised, while others have employed bellows-like or telescoping structures mounted to the seat, either directly or indirectly using linkages, so as to be deployed along the sides of the bowl as the seat is raised. As a group, such devices are cumbersome and may be inconvenient or difficult for some users. They also tend to provide poor protection against misdirected flow and spray, in some cases due to gaps and openings inherent in the designs, and also feature large and/or complexly shaped surfaces that are very difficult to clean. In addition, both the complexity, size and materials employed tend to render such devices both expensive to manufacture and vulnerable to wear and damage in use.
Another group of devices consists of temporary urinals that hang on or otherwise mount externally to the bowl of the toilet and include their own collection reservoirs; while some of these may be configured to avoid interference with lowering the seat, these devices present their own problems of having to repeatedly remove the collection vessel and dump its contents into the toilet bowl, followed by a rinsing if an odor is to be avoided, and moreover they are by nature both physically and aesthetically obtrusive.
Yet another drawback, shared by many of the devices of the types described above, is that even when the device is installed/erected a significant portion of the rim of the bowl is left exposed, leaving this area needing to be cleaned and also creating the opportunity for leakage along the rim.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an apparatus that is mountable to a conventional toilet for capturing and directing a flow of urine from a standing male child into a bowl of the toilet, that when attached to the toilet does not block or otherwise interfere with use of the seat of the toilet. Furthermore, there exists a need for such an apparatus that is effective in capturing and directing the flow and associated spray, but without large or convoluted surfaces that are difficult to clean. Still further, there exists a need for such an apparatus that is compact and not bulky, and is not physically or visually obtrusive. Still further, there exists a need for such an apparatus that minimizes the opportunities for escape or leakage from the flow of urine captured thereby. Still further, there exists a need for such an apparatus that can be economically manufactured while remaining adequately durable and long-lasting in use.